PDT commences a multi-year handover plan to the Ministry of Tourism Commerce and Industry.

Peace Dividend Trust has commenced a multi-year handover plan of the www.buy-in-timor.org online database to the Ministry of Tourism Commerce and Industry (MTCI). Osorio Correia (adviser to the Minister for TCI) and Florentina Smith (Director of the Research and Development Dept in the MTCI) are pictured discussing the beginning of the handover with Rod Nixon and Madelena Guterres of PDT.

PDT and MTCI have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which articulates the mutual desire to eventually transfer the Timor-Leste Online Procurement Database (www.buy-in-timor.org) to the MTCI within the next 3-4 years depending on resource and capacity issues.

To this end the MTCI and PDT have developed a flexible transfer plan, and on 18 November 2008 MTCI civil servants Mario Filipe (Database Entry Officer) and Angelito da Costa (Information Officer and Database) commenced working in PDT’s Balide Office with a view to building capacity so as to be able to absorb www.buy-in-timor.org in due course. MTCI is providing transport and information technology resources in addition to staff.